Coca-Cola is successful new treatment for stomach blockages

Published January 07, 2013

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Doctors are using Coca-Cola to treat patients who have gastric phytobezoar – more commonly referred to as a stomach blockage, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The treatment is now being favored over surgery, as it has a success rate of more than 90 percent, according to researchers from Athens University, which detailed their findings in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Coca-Cola, along with the diet version and Coke Zero, have chemical ingredients that work the same way as gastric acid, and the carbonation helps move everything along.

A stomach blockage, often caused when some fruits do not digest, can ultimately lead to a bowel obstruction. Doctors can treat the ailment with lasers, endoscopies and surgery

According to the researchers, if drinking Coca-Cola does not fully destroy the mechanism causing the blockage, it will at least make it smaller, thus making it easier to remove through typical procedures.

Replies

I know when I was a baby, (born at 27 weeks, along withmy twin sister) we had upset tummies all the time. The NICU docs would give us flattened coke to help settle out tummies. We have no issues from it, ect. It also worked.

40-50 years ago, people would go to the pharmacy and get a bottle of cola syrup for their babies and kids.

Quoting MeAndTommyLee:

A kindly old school ped that oversaw our children's health up until he retired told me to give a vomiting baby -- including infant and and child 2 ounces of coke to settle the stomach. Worked every time. Not a pop drinker myself at all, but when I have a stomach ailment , I do the same. A lot of relief.